Peranio was born in 1945 in Baltimore, and received a
Master of Fine Arts degree from the
Maryland Institute College of Art in 1968. He is of Italian ancestry. Peranio's first credited project is the creation of
Lobstora, a room-sized
rapacious lobster in Waters'
Multiple Maniacs (1970). After
Multiple Maniacs, Peranio developed a successful career creating the sets for all subsequent films of Waters and other films and TV shows, including
Barry Levinson's
Liberty Heights and the
crime dramas,
Homicide: Life on the Street,
The Corner, and the
HBO television production
The Wire. At times, Peranio's brother
Ed Peranio assisted with prop construction and creating effects, as well as portraying minor roles in the early Waters films. Peranio retired in 2016. They had previously lived on Dallas Street in
Fell's Point, Baltimore, where they gradually bought four adjoining rowhouses and merged them, modeling the property after an Italian villa, which was eventually dubbed the "Palace on Dallas". ==Filmography==